Connie Bennett

Connie Bennett, DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine Cheese Buyer

Connie Bennett (Bio

DeLaurenti's Connie Bennett swings a mean cheese.

And we welcome Connie Bennett of DeLaurenti, a culinary destination in the Pike Place Market for over 57 years, boasting 250 kinds of cheeses and hundreds of wines.

"I put up lists for employees, saying these are the cheeses we need to push," says Connie Bennett, deli manager and cheese buyer for De Laurenti in Seattle's Pike Place Market. Give that cheese high visibility on your counter and sample it aggressively, perhaps with a recipe or serving suggestion.
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At De Laurenti, where all cheeses are cut to order, Bennett has implemented a quarter-pound minimum purchase. That means she also will not sell part of a wedge if it leaves her with less than a quarter-pound. Bennett would rather cut into a new wheel than sell a customer, say, six ounces from an eight-ounce piece of Brillat-Savarin. "It's one of the hardest rules to enforce," she says.
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"Italy likes to Cryovac cheese, and sometimes that Cryovac has been on there so long that the rinds can get soggy and mushy," says Bennett. In that situation, she removes the plastic to let the cheese breathe and help the rind dry. For paper-wrapped cheeses that feel unduly sticky, she removes the paper to give them some air. She'll also turn Stilton and other wheels that she might not cut into right away to keep them maturing evenly.
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At De Laurenti, Cheese Buyer Bennett has an ally in the shop's affiliated cafe. What she can no longer sell, the cafe often can in the form of a broccoli cheese soup or a blue cheese pasta salad.

Connie Bennett, deli manager, adds, "We have been able to make this a multi-generational store.
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"We are a cheese shop for everybody, from people who are looking for common cheeses such as fresh mozzarella from Wisconsin for an easy tomato salad, to connoisseurs that want to taste small-production European cheeses with DOP designations," says Bennett, cheese buyer for 15 years.